The Republic of Nouns is a mammoth, cultured nation, notable for its deadly medical pandemics, ubiquitous missile silos, and restrictive gun laws. The hard-nosed, humorless population of 5.104 billion Nounsians are highly moralistic and fiercely conservative, in the sense that they tend to believe most things should be outlawed. People who have good jobs and work quietly at them are lauded; others are viewed with suspicion.

The large government juggles the competing demands of Industry, Administration, and Education. The average income tax rate is 59.2%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The frighteningly efficient Nounsian economy, worth 466 trillion verbs a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a large, well-organized black market in Automobile Manufacturing, Woodchip Exports, Uranium Mining, and Soda Sales. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 91,491 verbs, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The most common candidates on ballots are silk and cashmere, the thin blue line is composed of picketing police officers demanding better pensions, giggling elementary school newspaper reporters want to know why Leader is a silly poophead, and senior professors are allowed to skip the wait at soup kitchens. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Nouns's national animal is the iguana, which is also the nation's favorite main course.

Nouns is ranked 26,842^nd in the world and 1^st in Library for Largest Black Market, with 83.5 trillion Standard Monetary Units.